Young women and alcohol – it’s time to get real

The first time I got drunk, I was fifteen years old. It was a Friday night, my friend’s parents were away for the weekend and a group of us packed up for an overnight stay.

As most teenage events go, it was far from glamorous. We sat around the kitchen table, drinking full glasses of Malibu. Warm, dark liquor that I’ve yet to drink again.

Despite making big promises to ourselves, the whole evening boiled down to a few hours of mindless dancing and giggling, sharing a secret or two and a couple of trips to the bathroom sink.

Yet in our minds it was a special occasion. A rite of passage that we all shared. Someone even kept the bottle.

Mine is not an uncommon experience. According to recent statistics, 15 years is still the average age for young women to start drinking.

We do it to have a good time. To join in and to be accepted. As we get older, it becomes a self-confidence booster and a big part of having a great night out. For many it’s even stress relief.

Not many of these reasons are healthy justifications for drinking alcohol, but they’re real. And here’s how we need to address the policy making.

Alcohol is an accepted part of having a social life. For that reason alone I think young women will always be drawn to it. But I also accept that we need to think better about how we use alcohol in Australian life. I understand it is responsible for significant health and social costs and that we need to reshape our alcohol behaviour for the good of this and future generations.

So how do we do this? Here are five suggestions:

1. Effective policy making in this area needs to be “real”. That starts with accepting the reasons why young women drink alcohol and meeting them at their level. We need to ask questions about when and why they choose to drink. What they choose to drink. How much they think is safe to drink and how much they know about dealing with things when they go horribly wrong.

2. Focus on self-confidence and self-esteem. Never underestimate the power of alcohol as a social lubricant. Young women want to be both well liked and to feel good about themselves. Having a drink can seem like an easy way to achieve both these things in the right social situation. Good policy needs to express a good understanding of this.

3. Young women need a strong role model. There is no point addressing this demographic from a lofty or stuffy position. Find someone who talks their language. Like a woman, under the age of thirty, who is prepared to talk about alcohol and growing up, in a real way. That means being willing to accept that alcohol and social situations go hand in hand, but also being honest enough to reveal the horrible and dangerous sides. They also need to be calm. Terrifying or threatening anyone gets you nowhere.

4. Put calorie guides on packaging. Self-esteem and body image go hand in hand for young women. Maybe even all women. Putting on weight is a huge concern for this demographic. While it’s irresponsible to “play” on this in an emotional way, the power of calories is a strong deterrent, from anything. Displaying the calorie content of alcoholic drinks on each bottle could be a good start.

5. Educate about long-term effects. I’m now in my mid-30s. Several women I know now experience prolonged periods of anxiety after and during a hangover. For many it has become enough to put them off drinking for good. The long-term effects of heavy drinking on your life, memory and ability to cope without it need to be better explained to younger women.

Lucy Kippist

7 comments

Lucy, given the rapid escalation of young women’s drinking levels over the last 10 years may be more direct action will be required because considered ‘nudging’ might not be good enough to deal with the health and social consequences of this drinking behaviour? M

It is estimated that long-term chronic alcohol use is causally linked to 5% of all cancers in Australia each year. Alcohol consumption is also linked to 22% of breast cancer cases in Australia. Many people are unaware of these facts.

The focus on young women’s drinking always fascinates me. Are we outraged by this because young women are meant to be more lady-like? Are we outraged by this because young women appear more vulnerable when drunk? This blog suggests that 2 out of the 5 suggested approaches to address young women’s drinking are focused on 1. women being concerned about how they look (calories) and 2. what people think of them (self esteem). I wonder what the suggested strategies to address young men’s drinking are and how different these are to the one’s mentioned above. Or perhaps we aren’t concerned with that, because it is okay for young men to get smashed – just not for young women? Perhaps new suggestions for how to address the problem of alcohol misuse shouldn’t be so heavily based on old school gender stereotypes?

I just don’t understand why every social event (dinner, premieres, nights out in general) has alcohol as the primary beverage offered, with strange/”knowing” looks if one orders water. I believe in order to change the actions of those in society, the expectation that alcohol is the prefered drink of choice needs to be moved as the first offering.

The majority of heavy drinkers I know do it to forget about their life. The other casual drinkers I know do it for either taste, to increase ‘self esteem’ (ie. lower their inhibitions) or a combination of the two.

Join our mailing list

About Drink Tank

An initiative of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), Drink Tank aims to generate meaningful commentary and debate about alcohol policy, and to provide a platform for all members of the Australian community to share their views and concerns.